Here Comes The Bride
by TonyDTonyD
Summary: Uh-oh! Trouble is brewing when Ziva's mother flies into Washington to arrange her daughter's marriage.
1. Here Comes The Mum

Here Comes The Bride

"You're late!" was Ziva's greeting to DiNozzo as he rushed in to NCIS headquaters. It was 07:23.

"Where's Gibbs?" Tony glanced around nervously for the boss-man.

"MTAC, with the director. He left 10 minutes ago so he knows you're late anyway," Ziva smirked. She got up from the seat behind her desk and wandered over. "Ooh!" she squealed, catching sight of the bright red and black striped bag Tony had set down in front of him. It was the reason he was so late.

"Huh!" Ziva looked at the label on the side and read aloud. "'Sexy Shop of Stuff.'"

The next desk over was close enough for McGee's head to snap up in interest.

"What are you lookin' at, Probie!" Tony glared at him.

"Uhh, uhh, well actually, I think some-"

"Eyes on the paper, McGee!" Tony interrupted, and poor McGee's head went down again.

"Oh, Tony," Ziva laughed. She took out the items in the bag: A leather hand whip, and a pair of fluffy pink handcuffs. "So how old's this one?" She raised her eyebrows.

Tony snatched the bag and it's contents away, and shoved them in his desk draw. He could feel his cheeks burning. "It's...private!" he hissed.

But Ziva didn't move, just waited expectantly. It was Tony, surely he would cave in. "Ok, fine!" Tony had caved. He had a picture of her carved into his mind...brunette, curvy, early twenties. She was Italian, like him. They had met on Saturday at the beach and spent all day together...and all night...and all of Sunday.

"So, you only met two days ago, and you're all ready...you know?" Ziva's eyebrows had shot up again. Tony didn't answer. His attention had been drawn to someone at the entrance to their headquaters. It wasn't Gibbs, for once.

"Ziva..." Tony couldn't close his mouth.

"What?"

"Turn around."

Ziva turned, and gasped. "Mother!"


	2. Ira Hyam

"Ha! I knew it!" Tony blurted out.

"Well, it's kinda obvious, Tony," McGee said, who came up to stand next to him.

They both stood there, staring, at Ziva and her mother. They could have been identical twins, despite the age difference. Ziva's mum was slightly shorter, and her long curly hair had signs of grey. She had wrinkles, too, but anyone could tell straight away that they were related.

"It's like looking at Ziva in thirty years time," Tony whispered loudly to McGee.

"Mother, what are you _doing_ here?" Ziva was shocked, and even a little embarrassed.

"My Ziva, think," she answered in a strong Israeli accent. Ziva didn't respond, she knew straight away what it was. She wasn't ready, no way. But she had to, she had to carry on her family's tradition.

"It is time," she went on. "I've been looking for over two years now, and I've finally found the right-"

"Perhaps we should discuss this in private, Mother?" Ziva interrupted, looking pointedly at McGee and Tony, who were still motionless and had not quite gotten over the shock arrival.

"Why?" she, too, looked at the pair of goons just standing there. "They're going to find out anyway. They can come!"

"Find out what?" asked McGee.

"Go where?" Tony asked.

"Well to the wedding of course!" Mrs David turned to her daughter. "Haven't you told them yet?"

Ziva buried her face in her hands.

"We've been planning it for years!" she added. "It's the second most important day of your life, after your Bat Mitzvah of course."

"_Ziva_?" McGee's mouth was like the Grand Canyon. "_Married_?"

Tony was trying not to laugh, but it wasn't working. Ziva glared at him, and he shut up.

"Hey, Ziva, who's the lucky guy? Are you looking for someone in particular? 'Cause, I mean, you and I..." Tony was thinking about their mission together as undercover assassins. "Well, I'm just sayin', that, you know," he lowered his voice to a whisper. "We have a history together." He grinned. Ziva picked up an eraser off his desk and threw it at him.

"I met a lovely man a few weeks ago that you can settle down with." There was no stopping Ziva's mother. Unlike Ziva, she was extremely excited at the prospect of a wedding around the corner. "He's smart, he has a good job, and he only lives a few streets away from us. He's perfect!"

"Wait a sec," said Tony. He turned to Ziva. "You're going back to Israel?"

"Yes," said her mother.

"No," Ziva said at the same time.

"Ziva!" she said sharply. "This is not up for discussion. You will marry Ira Hyam in six weeks _in Israel_," she added pointedly.


	3. Vampires, Bats, and a Wedding

Abby broke the awful silence in NCIS headquaters that followed Mrs David's latest announcement. "I have two questions for you," she said to the room at large. "Where's the Boss-man and do you like my outfit?"

Ziva was the only one to answer. Her mother just stared at Abby in shock, and DiNozzo and McGee continued to stare at Mrs David, like a monkey in a cage. "Gibbs is in MTAC and- and-" She didn't know how to answer the last question. "Abby, _is that a wedding dress_?"

"Yup!" Abby said proudly. She glanced down at her gown. It was of black and blood-red satin, with a extra bit that appeared to wrap around her waist and form a train at the back. She was also wearing a black veil and a fake plastic tiara- also black. To top of the craziness of it all, she was wearing not heels but her knee-length platform boots. Even Tony and McGee tore their eyes away from Ziva's mother to stare at her.

"Wholy crap Abby are you getting married or something?" Tony squeaked.

"Nope," she answered. "I saw it on eBay, and I really liked it. So I brought it!"

"I-I think it looks...nice," McGee said tactfully.

"You can wear it to Ziva's wedding," Tony joked. "Or Ziva can borrow it!"

"Tony!" The wedding dress on Abby just added to Ziva's mad mood.

"Oh, Ziva you're getting _married_?" Abby rushed over and gave her a huge bear hug, practically knocking the breath out of her. "Who to?"

"Ira Hyam," Tony said, making kissing faces.

"Don't do that, Tony," said a voice behind him. "Ziva will whack you."

"Hey Boss," Tony said quickly.

"Gibbs!" Ziva was relieved. He would put a end to all this. He stopped, the coffee half-way up to his mouth, when he noticed Ziva's mum. His gut told him that this wasn't just your ordinary trip. Ziva had even confided in him and Director Shepherd this might happen soon. They had even offered to put her in hiding, sort of as a joke, but then Ziva had actually considered it. And now...the time had come. Ziva did not in any way want to meet-much less marry- this Ira Hyam. She had a damn good reason, too. But it was tradition. Her mother was putting her foot down. She had to. Her only other option was to fake her own death, or go into hiding...or both, and she didn't want to do that either. Ziva thought back to earlier years, back home. Not every date she brought home was a guy...it never lasted long though...it was more like the thrill of breaking house rules that got her into doing it. Sure, she still liked males. And there was one particular male that had captured Ziva's mind. Forget about the chicks, she had fallen in love. The worst part was, he didn't even know it.


	4. To Leave Or Not To Leave?

"Tony, can I have word?" Ziva, to Tony, suddenly seemed jumpy and nervous.

"Ok," he said, and followed him to an empty spot behind the staircase.

"Are you really gonna do it Ziva?" Tony frowned.

"No! I can't!" she moaned. "I'm not ready. I don't want to live in Israel, I want to continue working at NCIS. And most of all I don't want to marry Ira!"

"Is there any way out of this?" Tony asked.

"I can fake my own death. I can hide. I can be a discrace to my family..." Ziva looked down at her feet. "I don't think they will understand why I don't want this."

"So what's Gibbs gonna do about it."

"He's offered to put me in hiding...but I'm not so sure it's a good idea. Anyway I look at it, I'm spewed."

"Screwed," Tony couldn't resist correcting her grammer.

At that moment, Gibbs arrived. "Ziva. The director wants to see you in her office." He took a sip from his coffee cup and Ziva followed him, feeling worried. Gibbs got to her door first and pushed it open. He ignored her secretary, Cynthia, which was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Go right ahead," she muttered to herself as the agents entered Director Shepherds private office.

"Jethro. Ziva." She looked serious, not unlike times when Gibbs had broken rules and gotten his boss in trouble with other agencies.

"Take a seat," she said after realising they had not "made themselves at home." She turned to Ziva. "Jethro tells me it's happened. You must follow your family's tradition and get married."

"Yes," Ziva answered.

"Are you going to do it, Ziva?" the director glanced at her behind her purple glasses and folded her hands neatly in her lap.

"I don't want to," she said honestly. "But I must, to remain a part of my family."

"Will they really do that?" the Director raised her eyebrows. "Disown you?"

"I don't know. Maybe. It's mostly just my mother who is so insistent. If I could simply get through to her..."

"I want her on my team, Jen," Gibbs butted in.

"I know, _Special Agent Gibbs_," she said. "But at the end of the day, it is Ziva's decision. It is up to her."

Gibbs and Ziva looked at each other. His blue eyes seemed to be telling her something...how could she just abandon him? She could always completely trust him, for which for Ziva was grateful. She would turn to him for help, and he was always there. Ziva thought about Tony, too. He was a joker, teased her endlessly, and she had to put up with his teenager-ish behaviour every day. But he was also like Gibbs: She could trust him with her life. And McGee...McGee was really the first agent to accept her as part of the team. And to Ziva, that meant the world to her. She could not possibly leave McGee, Tony, Gibbs, Abby, or Ducky. So at that precise moment, she made her decision. "I want to stay here," Ziva said firmly. "I don't care what my mother says. I would rather marry the man _I_ want to spend the rest of my life with."


	5. Chapter 5

"Sorry, Tony, I couldn't stop her," were the first words McGee said when Tony came back to headquaters.

"What?" He looked over at his desk and couldn't hide his horror at the sight: Ziva's mother, it appeared, had been going through Tony's desk.

"This is the messiest drawer I saw ever seen!" she exclaimed when she saw him standing there. "How can you work like this every day?"

"Practice!" was the first thing that popped into DiNozzo's head.

"I'd hate to see what your filing cabinet looks like," she frowned.

"If you think _this_ is bad, you should see his apartment," McGee piped up. Tony pulled a face at him and glared at Mrs David.

"It's an invasion of my privacy!" he said.

"What is this, young man?" Ziva's mum had pulled out the whip and handcuffs he had stashed in there not long ago. "It's...um..." Tony paused for a moment. Then, "McGee! What do you think you're doing, stashing your kinky items in my desk?"

"Huh," she wasn't fazed, and dropped the items back into the bag.

Just then, the Director, Gibbs, and Ziva returned to team headquaters. Ziva's mum, upon seeing her daughter, narrowed her eyebrows in disapproval. "Don't let this family down, Ziva. We all had to do it- me, your sisters, your aunts, and your grandmothers. And they all have successful, happy lives with their husbands."

"Mother-" Ziva hadn't really decided how she was going to tell her. All she knew was that any way she did her mother would be furious. Furthermore, her glaring had made her eyes go so far down, like slits, Ziva wasn't sure her she could even make out the people standing around them at all.

_Ziva David, are you going to do this or not?_ she asked herself. _Do you want to spend your whole life with a man you have not met, who could be a mad mass murderer for all you know, or with the increasingly attractive Special Agent that you have known and trusted for years?_ Her head said no, don't do it...but her gut told her to go with it.

"Mother." Ziva braced herself for the explosion that was soon to erupt. "I am NOT going to marry Ira Hyam, and nothing you say is going to change my...my gut's mind." She glanced at Gibbs, who had the tiniest smile on his face. "There is someone else in my life. He doesn't know it yet...but, I love him. And I have loved him for some time. Many months."

"A few months? Is that all?" Mrs David's face was clouding over in rage. "How can you possibly-"

"A few months is more than not at all, Mother!" she retorted.

"Fine! You go ahead, let me and our family down. Who is this great love of yours then? The one you wish to marry instead?"

Ziva paused. A million thoughts ran wildly around in her mind. It was now or never. Man, Gibbs would kill her. What was it, Rule 9? Never date a co-worker? Maybe, over time, he would get over it when he realised how perfect they were together...

Screw it! Ziva walked over to him, not taking her eyes off his for a second. He just stood there, his mouth hanging slightly open. She placed her hands in his and gave him a soft kiss on his slightly chubby cheek. "McGee," Ziva smiled at him. He paused for a second, then relaxed. And smiled back...such a cute smile he had. "I love you," she said. "And you are the man I want to spend my whole life with."

**Well, I finally finished my first ever Ziva story. You all thought it was Tony, right?** **So did I, but then I thought this would be a bit different. I hope you don't hate me. 8D. Also sorry this chapter took ages to get up, my internet broke. Honest.**


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